[break] Welcome to the Bulldawg Illustrated Hoops Report. It’s like the Rolling Stones’ classic You Can’t Always Get What You Want. Hopefully, we’ll get what we need. While I think the Dawgs are in the Big Dance at this point, it may not be a done deal. We could need one more victory to confirm that. Though I said at the beginning of the year 10-8 would be our record and that would be enough to get it done, I did not realize there would be a chance we’d lose four times to USCe and Auburn. Right now, we account for 33% of their wins, if we were to lose out in the regular season and get a rough draw in the SEC Tourney, we could be a team on a three game losing streak that has four losses to two teams that may only combine for ten conference wins. While that’s the worst case and we’d still have a good argument to make, there would be a lot of people lobbying against us in the selection room. I can assure you of that. Not because they’re all anti-UGA, but because we’d have a number of bad losses. We’d be an easy target so to speak. So let’s win at least one of the next two games and then try to make a little SEC run. But before we get ahead of ourselves, let’s spend 15 seconds talking about this past Saturday.
[break] [break] We beat Missouri 68-44 I believe. That win was so meaningless that our odds to make the NCAA actually went from 78% to 74%. That 4% drop was due to other bubble teams picking up huge wins. Also, don’t forget if you get several big upsets conference tournaments, that eats up a number of the at-large invitations. So winning didn’t really help us Saturday other than the fact that losing would’ve devastated us. Enough said about that.
[break] [break] Tuesday night at 9 p.m. Big Blue rolls into the Classic City for a game that would not only lock up UGA’s chances of making the Big Dance, but would also erase the bad taste of the two horrible home losses. Plus, it would give us a little extra credibility in the seeding process. I personally believe Kentucky will lose this year. While I may be dead wrong about that, I do know the formula that most likely beats them. As we said in the last UK report, you have to get hot outside and you’ve got to hope their cold offensively. I think you have to keep the winning score around 70 or lower. They don’t give up a lot of points and for good reason. They’re the best defensive team in the country and they’re huge down low. Plus, our big men miss numerous layups every game. So it’s going to be hard to beat them in the paint. However, you can outscore them if they’re cold and you’re hitting from outside. I said last time we could beat them if we scored 70. They ended up winning 69-58. However, Nemi Jurisic shot to make it 65-61 with 1:19 left. So we were in that game until the end and didn’t have our leading rebounder Marcus Thornton. Now if they come out and score 110 like they did versus Auburn, we have no chance nor does anyone else. You have to play great defense, hit some big threes, and make the game ugly. While no one may catch them like that this year, they’ve already had a few narrow escapes. So it’s doable.
[break] [break] Our beloved Dawgs are 10-6 and really need to get to 11 SEC wins. You can win a home game or you can win a road game to get there. The road game is against a bad team you gain nothing by winning. The home game is your Senior Night for Marcus Thornton and Nemi Djurisic. Two Damn Good Dawgs. Two guys who have never taken anything for granted and given 100% every time they’ve suited up. It’s Prime Time ESPN. The nation will be watching for Pete’s sake. You want to be part of history? Just grab some happy hour love from 5-8 pm somewhere in God’s Little Acre and the roll on over to the Stegesaurus. You know they’ll be plenty of Blue there. Those guys travel well. But this is our house, our game, and our history. Lets Paint It Black! And Red! They’ve had their day in the Sun all season long. It’s time for the Big Dawg to eat and shock the world. I don’t have any Sympathy for the Devil, I mean Calipari. He deserves to go down. Let’s send him packing with no Satisfaction.
[break] [break] Go Dawgs!
[break] [break] Photo by Sean Taylor/UGA